Author: Buse Ilknur Yilmaz

Today we discussed the aims, ambitions and scope of the course. We shared our expectations from the project. We also examined the current context for Virtual Reality practices in Art and Design.

My definition of virtual reality would be a way of accessing a three-dimensional world. It is an experience that triggers our senses and our brains sense making mechanisms, allowing us to become participants in the digital world. Virtual reality interests me because it gives us an opportunity to travel through a virtual world that doesn’t really exist. It is an art of memory, giving us an experience to be teleported into an ideal utopian environment.

My virtual reality experience with the Samsung headset was amazing. It was strange to feel like I was on an actual rollercoaster. I was not moving around with it, hence why I felt nauseous. But it was certainly an incredible first-time experience to be part of an artificial life. I had also tried on a VR headpiece at a Burberry exhibition. This was also an amazing experience as I was able to access Henry Moore’s studio space, and got to see his huge life size sculptures. Even though I was not there physically, it felt as though I was completely immersed within his studio space.

Augmented Reality: Augmented reality is the integration of digital information with the user’s environment in real time.

Al or Artifical life: The simulation by computer programs or computerized systems of the behaviour, population dynamics, or other characteristics of living organisms.

Immersion: Deep mental involvement in something.

Utopia: an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect/ like paradise.

Dystopia: an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.

Heterotopia: is a concept in human geography elaborated by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe places and spaces that function in non-hegemonic conditions.